Author's Notes:

A couple of people have asked questions about Lieutenant Cracked Mirror. Let me put a blanket statement out there that if you wish to use her in your own writing, you can. Just drop me a line.

It's funny how I actually drew Mirror in the cover art before I had any idea what she was like. As Rune Heart and I were working on the story, her character started to develop, although I have to admit it was pretty ad-hoc. Here's all the notes we had on her:

Lieutenant Cracked Mirror. In charge of Camp Driftwood. Never takes off her batpony spell. Possibly insane. Ally of Trixie.

As her personality and role in the story grew, though, I became a little concerned that we had accidentally created a character more interesting than the protagonist.

Her name was suggested by Burraku_Pansa in a chat. He claimed inspiration from the Malkavian clan of insane vampires in the Vampire: the Masqurade RPG and pointed out how well their symbol would work as a cutie mark:

Mirror isn't loony-bin crazy. In fact, some or all of her personality may be an act. She's intentionally mysterious and knows or guesses most of what ponies say about her behind her back.

Though possibly insane, she's still a good leader and a good Guard. There's not enough equipment to go around at Wash Margin, so she doesn't wear a helmet. She understands "praise in public and reprimand in private."

A good leader and a good Guard she may be, but Mirror tends to inspire reactions ranging from confusion (Melon), to mild annoyance (Trixie), to moderate annoyance (everyone else).

Smoking string is one of her many quirks, though if I had to say why, perhaps it and playing with her lighter are both traits of a recovering cigarette smoker. She so rarely takes off the batpony guise that nobody recognizes her real face, such as at Trixie's magic show to keep Trixie from thinking she was performing in front of her boss. She never takes it off partly due to the fact that she feels like she's always on the job, at least around Wash Margin because there's nothing else to do. It's also at least partly due to her extreme quirkiness. She does most of what she does for purposes known only to her.

Here's a drawing by the awesome Ruirik